


Worth Something

by Nautilusopus



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Heavy Angst, Human Experimentation, Not a Happy Story, crisis core and dirge still not canon, forgot what movie i saw this particular trope in but that's where my mind went immediately, hard drive spring cleaning, it was probably not platoon, no betas here we die like men, was it platoon?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-05 23:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13398174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nautilusopus/pseuds/Nautilusopus
Summary: Cloud makes Zack an offer. This time Zack takes him up on it.





	Worth Something

**Author's Note:**

> Was going through my computer and found this thing sitting in a folder from when I got bored and wrote it for a laugh a couple years ago. Figured I might as well publish it. Will definitely not be expanded upon later because there are entirely too many "What if Zack lived??????" stories out there as it is and now I'm contributing to the problem, but I didn't want it to just sit there and collect dust. Oh well.
> 
> EDIT: I've changed the title because I've realised far too late it shares one with that weird evangelical book series where the rapture happens and all the non-Christians and gays and people that have gotten divorces are left to slowly starve to death whoops

The air raid sirens echo through the empty village with no one to hear their warning. Sirens meant biohazard leak. A few months they might've meant other things. Fire, perhaps, but nobody had sounded it then because it had been too late.

Cloud tripped one more time, and then fell nearly taking Zack down with him. Zack carefully picked him up, taking care not to agitate the open wound on his side, panting heavily. He didn't weigh much, especially now with how malnourished he was, but then Zack was too.

"Just a little more, Spike. Almost there."

It was early morning outside. There weren't any uncovered windows or clocks in the mansion or the labs, and they had long since lost any reference they had for how much time had passed. The sight of the sun coming up over the mountains, turning the sky gold and pink and blue, causing the snow blanketing the ground to shimmer, was enough to cause his breath to catch in his throat for a moment, before the sound of pursuing guards in the distance reminded him what it meant for them in the first place.

A hundred metres. Then eighty. Then fifty. The low light and the shadow of Mount Nibel above them gave him some cover, but not for long.

Another thirty metres. Zack's arms ached, and his lungs burned, sucking down more thin mountain air. Twenty more. then ten, then...

"...Oh," said Cloud.

It was the sort of "oh" that was the period at the end of a death certificate, or the response to a broken parachute as the ground hurtled closer to you.

There was a fence. Four metres high. A small one, really, as far as security fences go. Not even electric. Nibelheim really was backwater.

"Just... just a little more —"

"I can't climb that, Zack." There was a note of resigned finality in his voice at the truth of it.

"Just — sure you can. C'mon, we gotta..." he carefully set him down, eliciting a sharp hiss of pain from Cloud as a few more stitches in his most recent surgical wound ripped open.

"Zack —" he began.

"No," he interrupted. "We're getting outta here, both of us. Who else is gonna cover the tip when we get burgers? You promised." He smiled. It wasn't really his smile anymore, and hadn't been for months. It hurt. It looked like it hurt, too.

Cloud pushed himself up and latched a hand onto the fence, his arms shaking from that small effort alone. The guards were getting louder.

He let go again. They were both weak, and both had lost a decent amount of blood. But Zack was older, and stronger, and had kept down what little food they had been given better. Zack hadn't had his heart restarted two weeks ago, either.

"I'm not leaving you here, Cloud," he said. He hadn't stopped looking at the sunrise.

"You'll have to," he replied, as easily as though they were discussing training options back at the barracks. "If you want to get out, you'll..."

Zack stared at him, and then the sky, and the mansion, and then Cloud again.

He sat down. "Nah, not really."

"...You can't. You can't do that, you —"

"I'm not in the business of letting some no-ranker tell me what I can and can't do, Spike. If we can't both get out of here, it's not worth —"

"What about Aeris?" interjected Cloud. "What about all your friends? What — what about your parents, Zack?" he added. "Your family. I mean, I'm — they're alive, and they're waiting for you."

For a few brief moments, he considered it. To see his parents again...

Cloud pounced on the opportunity.

"...You have people that miss you. There's nobody left for me anyway. Just... go. Quick. Make it worth something."

Zack turned back to Cloud. This damn mountain air, making his throat tighten up. "I — I'll come back for —"

"No. If... if they catch you again, it shouldn't be because of me." he said. He had managed to sit against the fence, breathing laboriously, clearly spent, his face devoid of expression.

Zack swallowed thickly. The colours of the sunrise blurred, stinging his eyes. The guards were close now. They had moments left. "Well, I can't leave you here alone."

Cloud looked at him, perplexed, before comprehension dawned on his face. He drew a deep, shuddering breath. "No, you can't." He turned away from the sun briefly to look at Zack. "We're friends, right?" he said, sounding expectant. It was a stupid question, he knew. He didn't care.

Zack nodded, quickly wiping his eyes, and pulled him into a hug. "The best I could ask for."

Cloud smiled. That one hurt Zack too, since it wasn't really his either. "Let's mosey, then."

 

* * *

 

By the time the guards caught up to the fence, there was no sign of A. They only found one specimen — the dud, B, half-buried in snow, his throat bruised, his skin grey, his chest still, his glassy eyes still fixed on the sunrise.

 

* * *

 

Zack Fair sometimes thought about that day, six years ago. He would wonder if killing a kid was better than leaving him there. He would also tell himself that he hadn't been much older than Cloud, and hadn't he deserved freedom too? He would tell himself the lack of mourners for him made it worse and then better, and then worse. He would tell himself he should have left and come back for him. He would tell himself he should have stayed in hell with him, as a matter of duty. He told himself so many things he didn't know what to believe anymore.

Aeris had been rather cross, having not contacted her for four months. They had gone into hiding not long after, but recently she had become more and more restless. The world was rotting beneath their feet, she would say, or something like that. Always too loud. At night, she would mutter about screaming. He found it rather unsettling, but could only imagine what he said in his sleep to her.

In a dive bar in the slums, Tifa Lockhart one day remembers that weird kid from Nibelheim that promised to join Soldier for her. She wonders how that worked out for him, and recalls him being a bit creepy, then goes back to grilling mushrooms.


End file.
